Consistent Assignment Celebrated in Michigan Long-Term Care Facilities
The virtues of consistent assignment are extolled in a new video produced by MPRO, Michigan’s Quality Improvement Organization.
The video features interviews with administrators, direct-care workers, and residents at three Michigan long-term care facilities:
- The Sanctuary at Bellbrook, in Rochester Hills;
- Lakeview Manor, in Tawas City; and
- Jackson County Medical Care Facility, in Jackson.
Each of these facilities has introduced consistent assignment within the last few years, generally as part of broader culture-change efforts.
They’ve all seen immediate positive results, including increased family satisfaction and better clinical outcomes. At the Jackson County facility, for example, there has been a marked decrease in pressure ulcers, according to administrator Sandra Place.
Residents also greatly prefer seeing the same caregivers each day. Erin Leutermann, a certified nursing assistant at the Sanctuary, says in the video that residents “count on us to come in every day. They don’t have any surprises. They look forward to us coming in. They know how they’re going to be treated…. We know them so well, everything just goes real smooth.”
